Tag Archives: christian writing

Christian Soapbox, Nathan Dooley

YOU SHALL LOVE…

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I recently read a rule on writing: write the way you speak. And so this is me trying to write how I speak, only…I don’t—actually—know that I would’ve started off so eloquently as I have. It might’ve started something more like me interrupting your peaceful train of thought on something much more…stupid— “so yo I read this rule about writing the way you speak,” as you roll your eyes to look at me with annoyance for interrupting a perfectly awesome daydream about things I would not care at all about other than, of course, the fact you cared enough to depart your attention from the society I so happen to inhabit. Which is unacceptable. I can’t have that.

Anyway. The point is, I need your attention. “Why” might be your urge that boils from within to a steam for my ears to hear, but let me save you that frustration by demanding you obey these two commandments before you burn…me (haha—did you like that pause, cause I did).

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”—Matthew 22:36-40 (NASB)

See, now, doesn’t that make you feel all better…

If you’re of the literal type, you might be driven to brink of insanity when stuck on whether your author is being humorous or narcissistic—or possibly both. And so let me save you the suspense by affirming that I look at myself in the mirror when singing, also after taking a selfie, which causes me to start singing again. So basically I’m singing as I look at myself in the reflection of my computer screen:

OUR GOOOOOD…IS AN AWWESOMMEE GOD
HE REIGNS…FROM HEAVEN ABOVE
WITH WIIIISDOM, POWER, AND LOVE—

Because after all, our God is an awesome God for making someone like me— am I right!? And if you haven’t laughed at all by anything I’ve written thus far…welp, congratulations, you interpret everything from an extreme literal perspective. Which is perfectly fine, you just…might, well…need a moment, or two, to breathe, but regardless; my sense of humor is outstanding— am I right!?—(last one—that was the last one).

So now that you’ve loved me this far into your reading, lets talk about how God loves you.

YOU SHALL LOVE

I don’t think Jesus—the proclaimed Son of Man—would’ve said what He didn’t learn from His Father—the proclaimed God—without you—the proclaimed reader—in mind when He said: You shall love… .

Is it wrong of me to believe that Jesus knew the conditions for such a—an axiomatic—statement yet to be proven on the terms of human nature?

I guess what I mean by that is…because Jesus knew that mine and your condition of sin (as equivalent to those questioning) blinds us from seeing the truth of such love accomplished in Him; how could there be any other way for us to see that eternal meaning of Love that God is, than for Jesus to die without tasting sin—although tempted to the point of sweating blood in resistance as you might recall “yet not as I [Jesus] will, but as You [Father] will“? The discipline of God’s Just wrath due our sin could only be quenched by the blood and water of the innocent Lamb of God—Jesus our Christ. And that, by what Jesus did on the cross, gives us a new way of seeing.

Whatever the hurt, pain, or suffering you’re experiencing; you might be on trail for your faith. And I encourage you by calling to mind where Jesus is, your Intercessor of the faith in which you hold so dear. Keep holding, hold on, don’t let go. God knows the truth of your condition so intimately that He gave His only Son as that Lamb for the sake of you. He loves you.

Don’t get me wrong, I write this in “confidence” while yet experiencing my own set of trials tempting my carnal intellect for all kinds of ghastly evil; a 3 or 4 letter word at my fingertips all too simple to type with a swift motion of my pinky—*enter*—is all it takes. Then down the rabbit hole I go with all reputation to proceed me, and that might be you at this very moment or possibly even the next. Is it? Will it be?

If it is; if it will be; be encouraged! There will be a necessary discipline, two world’s divided before you; one world will hate you, and the other will identify you as a hypocrite, but live in the former and not the latter even when you might visit the latter for a time (Don’t stay there!) Keep the faith!

Jesus showed us how we shall love, I pray we are doing so in this Christmas season, and even to death.

Amen

Nathan Dooley

ONCE UPON A [PAUSE]

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In the virtual world, I’m Mario, and no one can beat me. That’s right. Soak it in you game nerds and Gamers!

There was a time when Super Smash Bros was a serious game in my life, no sister or brother could [PAUSE].

You see how inconvenient ‘pauses’ are in our lives.

Pauses, are so frustrating it makes you want to throw a gaming controller from wherever you are in the world to volcanoes in Iceland.

Why are they frustrating?!

Because pauses have the power to throw your entire game off, to cool you from your fire when you’re so hot no one wants to play against you.

So there was a time when Super Smash Bros was a serious game in my life, no sister or brother could defeat me when my character was on the platform…

And then there was Link.

The End. —I should just leave it there, but then Link would win, and I can’t have that!

The point is, pauses, while frustrating when used as a means to be a sore loser, or even, winner, are also necessary for change and growth.

I’ve written consistently for a month, and it’s time for a pause going into our Christmas season.

Of course I still plan on posting throughout December of 2021, but it will be random.

Before the new year 2022, I hit … [PAUSE] … for the love of the “game”, which is our lives coming together in celebration of the greatest gift of eternal life…

The Lord our God, Jesus Christ – Merry Christmas!

I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

At the head of the noisy streets she cries out | P1-V21

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Wisdom Warns 

Proverbs 1; I die daily devotional.

21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:

Jesus is crying out in out in our hearts and uttering his sayings in our minds, our conscience is bearing witness, and are we listening? Matthew 10:26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

SHE UTTERS

Matthew 10:32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Wisdom utters her voice about the true God and Father in every body and soul. And the consequence of understanding the knowledge of good and evil is our experience of this present death by that sin of Adam. However, by Jesus, the Son of God, that sin was taken away when He died on the cross in obedience to His Father, our Father in Heaven, where Jesus has ascended and is, right now, the true King. Wisdom is the whisper in our ears, the meaning of principles that reflect the nature of an eternal life, an eternal life through the belief in Jesus Christ. Wisdom is our hope and faith in this life to behave in a way that reflects the next. This truth will not bring peace, but a spiritual war.

  • Do I hear her cry?
  • Do I hear her utter?
  • Do I hear her whisper?
  • Does my life speak Jesus before men?

RECOURSE

Proverbs 1 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naïve, To the youth knowledge and discretion, 5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; 9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; 13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; 14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” 15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, 16 For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. 17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; 18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. 19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors. Wisdom Warns 20 Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; 21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: 22 “How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? 23  “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; 25 And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; 26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, 27 When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 “For the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P1-V21) Commentary
II. How he calls to us, and in what manner.

  • 1. Very publicly, that whosoever hath ears to hear may hear, since all are welcome to take the benefit of what is said and all are concerned to heed it. The rules of wisdom are published without in the streets, not in the schools only, or in the palaces of princes, but in the chief places of concourse, among the common people that pass and repass in the opening of the gates and in the city. It is comfortable casting the net of the gospel where there is a multitude of fish, in hopes that then some will be enclosed. This was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus, who taught openly in the temple, in crowds of people, and in secret said nothing (Jn. 18:20), and charged his ministers to proclaim his gospel on the housetop, Mt. 10:27. God says (Isa. 45:19), I have not spoken in secret. There is no speech or language where Wisdom’s voice is not heard. Truth seeks not corners, nor is virtue ashamed of itself.
  • 2. Very pathetically; she cries, and again she cries, as one in earnest. Jesus stood and cried. She utters her voice, she utters her words with all possible clearness and affection. God is desirous to be heard and heeded.